Reddit Plays Cupid For People Looking For Love Online: Study

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Washington: Social Networking Service Reddit seems to be the perfect cupid for people who are looking for love online.

The study conducted by Georgia Institute of Technology shows that users on OKCupid and mobile-based Tinder aren't able to determine social norms or effective match-making techniques on the services, so they use Reddit to learn tips about online dating.

Professor Keith Edwards of Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing, asserted that they found that participants used these Reddit forums to share experience and to offer advice, and the forums played a major role in shaping how participants used the dating sites and there are two thriving subreddit groups for OkCupid and Tinder that are vital to helping users understand dating techniques, both on the sites and in general.

Researchers interviewed participants on the subreddits and observed the public forums, which collectively have more than 95,000 members and 1,400 new posts a day at any given point.

Many subreddit discussions centered on what not to do, with users providing cautionary examples of harassing or unwanted messages and other anti-social behavior. Others warned users against risking their own privacy by sharing their own photos from other social networks on the dating sites, which might allow others to determine the user's real identity.

Findings from the study also showed persistent frustrations with the online dating experience. Users complained of trolling and catfishing (the use of false photos to deceptively engage users). Men, primarily, were frustrated with non-responses to their messages. Users also talked about "the fade", when a potential romantic partner slowly stops responding to messages.

Edwards said that as one user commented everyone is always fun-loving, loves to laugh, loves to travel and hangout with friends and lack of novelty and lack of spontaneity in conversation came up quite often.